What’s up with this ‘mom thing’?? (overdue update!)

Well we’ve just wrapped up a week of Mother’s Day and my birthday festivities.  I’ve read oodles of posts from other mom friends, and shed my tears and pondered again what this whole ‘mom thing’ is all about.

We just finished a series at our church called The Art of Ordinary.  Yep, that’s it.  THAT’s the ‘mom thing’.  Ordinary love.  Ordinary self-sacrifice.  Ordinary hugs.  Ordinary band aids.  Ordinary volleyball practices.  Ordinary therapies.  Ordinary dinners together.  Ordinary family bible time and prayer.  You know that I could go on. And on...

All of this ordinary =equals= treasured and memorable family years.  Has any one thing been all that memorable?  No, not really.  But I already hear my older kids looking back at their childhood with fondness.  And on Mother’s Day when they say they appreciate me, I can see the truth in their eyes and hear it in their voice.  It’s been in the ordinary struggles and joys that we've grown- TOGETHER.

So this post is going to be all about the ordinary things that have been happening in the past few months of our lives.

You're probably most interested in hearing about the ordinary orphan who became our extraordinary cherished gem 9 months ago.  We just keep shaking our heads in amazement at her progress.  And particularly at the amazing little person that is coming alive right in front of our eyes.  She is showing us little bits of new progress each day.  Is the process slow? yes.  Are we filled with hope?  Heck yeah!

At the end of February, Maryelle got her hearing aids, started early intervention preschool, and speech therapy.  In 3 months she has gained SO much!  She is constantly trying to communicate, and has enough words that she can get her point across.  She easily interacts with other kids and adults now.  And yesterday, she skipped for me for the first time.  She exceeded the goals that speech therapy set for her this semester and is now doing the somersaults that she learned at The Little Gym at home.  I just keep doing the ordinary 'mom thing' and by God's grace she comes ALIVE.           How blessed are we to be the witness of this!?!

Caleb, the baby boy of the family, (this title helps him feel like he wasn't displaced by M!) is busy with reading the entire Harry Potter series, playing piano, soccer and training for his first kids' triathlon.  Oh and I should mention that he has become quite skilled at pushing his little sister's buttons!

Ike adds humor to our ordinary days.  He's just so witty.  Although I must admit that oftentimes at the dinner table that it's just he and I laughing, so I'm not sure what that means. 

He and Andy celebrated his 13th birthday with a short cruise out of L.A.  We forego the fancy birthday parties when the kids are younger and mark this milestone in a big way.  It was a time for lots of dad/son talks about teenage responsibilities mentally, physically and spiritually.  Ike is hitting teenagedom without hesitation and we can't wait to walk beside him through it.

Hannah loved her winter season on the court and we've seen her grow and mature in so many wonderful ways this school year.  A month ago she had knee surgery to remove a big bone growth from her tibia and to repair her meniscus.  Although it's been challenging, she's handling it remarkably.  She's overly anxious to get back to full strength for summer basketball, volleyball and her Dominican Republic mission trip.

Here's to making GREAT out of the ordinary!!